How many indie film blogs & indie film info/news/review/opinion sites are there?

This was a question that came up often while I was making Indie Film Blogger Road Trip. My guess is that there are several hundred to several thousand sites that I would consider indie film blogs or perform the same function - offer news, opinion, reviews, etc. re: indie film & related matters. So let's take a few days, scan the interwebz, & see if we can figure out how many indie film blogs - roughly - there may be. I am going to limit this list to blogs & sites written in English (since that's what I can read well) and I'll probably skip most blogs & sites set up to promote just one movie - unless such sites also talk about indie film stuff in general. Post your suggestions in the comments section, will check 'em out & add them to the list. I'll probably build the links list until early to mid January.

2/6/09 2:29 AM UPDATE: 133 sites linked, off to promote IFBRT screening & release DNO DVD & make the Brooklyn comedy, will update the list throughout the year as time permits. 1/7/09 3:11 PM UPDATE: adding some new links, will re-number the list later this week. :: 1/1/09 1:35 AM UPDATE: 128 blogs listed & linked! 12/29/08 - 10:57 PM UPDATE: 104 blogs listed & linked (a lot more links - dozens, maybe even hundreds, coming in early January!) Older Updates: 12/26/08, 10:25 PM UPDATE: - Got 69 blogs & sites listed & linked. :: 12/28/08, 12:13 AM UPDATE: - got 85 blogs linked :: 12/28/08, 10:34 PM UPDATE: - 99 blogs listed & linked

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INDIE FILMS BLOGS & BLOGESQUE SITES - A LINKS LIST

a work in progress from late december 2008 to mid january 2009

A
1- Action! Jackson

2 - Ain't It Cool News

3-All About Indie Filmmaking
4 - All These Wonderful Things
5 - Alternative Film Guide

6- anonymous insider
7 - Anthony Kaufman's blog
8 - Arbogast on Film

9-Armando Valle
10 - Around the Block: Doug Block's Doc Blog
11 - The Art of Memory
12 - ArtForum/Film
13 - Atlanta Film Festival Blog
14 - The Auteurs' Notebook

B
15 -B-Scene Films

16 - The Back Row Manifesto
17 - Bad Lit: The Journal of Underground Film
18 - Beyond Mumblecore

19 - Salon's Beyond the Multiplex
20 - Boredom at Its Boredest
21 - Brian Flemming's Weblog
22 - Bright Lights After Dark
23 - Bright Lights Film Journal

C
24 - Carnivalesque Films blog
25 - The Chutry Experiment
26 - Cinema Echo Chamber
27 - CinemaTech
28 - Cinematical

29-Cinevegas Blog

30-The Circuit
31 - Criterion blog

32- Cynematik

D

33-The Daily [at] IFC.com by David Hudson

34-Davekehr.com
35 - The Documentary Blog

36-Digital Independence
37 - DIY Days
38 - DIY Filmmaker Sujewa
39 - Doc It Out

40 -Docs Interactive

41-A Doc's Journal

42-Docu-Blog/Steve's POV

E
43 -Enzian Theater

44 - Everything Else Is Rim Light

45 - eugonline

F
46 -Film Essent

47 - Film Independent

48 - Film Independent filmmaker blogs

49 -Film of the Month Club
50 - FilmInFocus

51-A Filmmaker's Life
52 - Filmmaker Magazine blog
53 - The Film Panel Notetaker
54 - Friends Are My Art Form

G

55- Gabe's Declaration of Principles

56-Good Small Films
57 - GreenCine Daily

58 -Greg Pak's Film Talk

59 -Guardian Film Blog

H
60 - Hammer To Nail
61- HD For Indies
62 - Hollywood Is Talking

63 -Horror 101

64 -The House Next Door

I
65 - The Independent
66-Independent Film Blog
67-The Independent Eye/IFC blog
68-Indie Features
69-Indie Film Blog
70 - indieWIRE
71 - indieWIRE blogs page

72-iW Insider

73-Info Wants To Be Free
74 - infinicine
75 - The Inside Skinny

76-Invisible Cinema

77-Invisible Woman...Black Cinema At LARGE

J
78-J.D. Ashcraft's Blog

79-Jared Moshe's weblog

80-Jon Reiss News

81-JonathanRosenbaum.com
82-Jurgen & Marcy's Independent Film Blog
83-johnaugust.com

84-JUMP CUTS by James Israel

K

85-King Blog

L

86-Let's Make Better Films

87-Like Anna Karina's Sweater

88-Lincoln Blogs

89-The Lost Boy

M
90-Making Movies In Flyover Country
91- Matt Dentler's Blog

92-Michael in Sao Paulo
93-Movie City Indie
94-Movie Marketing Blog
95-MYFILM "Independent Film News"

N

96-New Breed

97-NewFest - NewBlog

98-New York Movie Reviews - Village Voice

O
99-100 Films

100-The Obenson Report
101-Observations on film art and Film Art

102 - One Way Community

103 -Out of Focus

P

104-Paula's After Thoughts

105-poverty jetSetter

106-Pullquote

Q

R
107-The Rabbi Report
108-The Real Indie Film News Blog

109- Reel Artsy
110- The Reeler

111-Reverse Shot

S

112- The Scandy Factory

113-Screen Rush
114- The Screengrab
115- Self-Reliant Film
116- Shooting Down Pictures
117- Shooting People: Shooting From The Hip
118- ShortEnd Magazine
119 - SoCalFilm Group

120-Some Came Running
121 - Spout
122- Spout blog

123-SpringBoardMedia
124- Steady Diet of Film blog

125-Steven Rosen
126- Still in Motion

T
127 - Truly Free Film
128 - TrustMovies

U
129-The Ugly Betty Blog

V

W
130 -Week of Wonders

131-WendyWIRE

132-Women & Hollywood
133- Workbook Project

X

Y

Z

OTHER - New blogs, & or mostly Hollywood stuff/some indie stuff blogs, etc. - not counted in the indie film blogs list above, but linked (might be of interest to people interested in indie film blogs):

Alejandro Adams

MORE LINKS COMING SOON

And here's the opening 9 minutes & its official description!

*

In this 9 minute segment from Sujewa Ekanayake's documentary Indie Film Blogger Road Trip we see: Anthony Kaufman talk about the moment when he knew he would "make it" as a professional film journalist, Sujewa Ekanayake introduce the documentary, and Tambay Obenson speak about the community that one becomes a part of by blogging and how that community and blogging has helped him develop his career as a filmmaker. Music by Kevin MacLeod. The full 95 minute documentary will be available at screenings and on DVD in 2009. For more information and news about the project please visit: http://indiefilmbloggersmovie.blogspot.com/
Indie Film Blogger Road Trip was produced, directed, videotaped, and edited by Sujewa Ekanayake. Indie Film Blogger Road Trip Copyright 2008 Sujewa Ekanayake/Wild Diner Films.

Filmmaker Magazine blog, The Chutry Experiment & others mention the 9 minute clip from the doc

Check out Filmmaker blog's mention here. The clip is also embedded there. Thanks Scott!

Chuck Tryon, who is one of the subjects of the doc, mentioned the clip here. Thanks Chuck!

UPDATE - 9 PM:

GreenCine Daily also mentioned the clip, check it out here. Thanks David!

And Tambay Obenson (one of the bloggers featured in the clip) of The Obenson Report fame mentioned the clip - Thanks Tambay!

UPDATE - 12/21 Sunday:

The Film Panel Notetaker - another blogger featured in the doc - mentions the 9 min. clip. Thanks Brian!

Hollywood Is Talking talked a little bit about the clip at this post. Thanks JB!

One Way Community blog embedded the clip, thanks Princeton!

UPDATE - 12/22 Mon:

Movie City Indie mentions the clip & embeds it - Thanksalot!

Also found out today that All These Wonderful Things blog mentioned the clip in the Nonfiction Headlines section recently. Thanks AJ!

UPDATE - 1/15/09 Thu:

Slant Eye For The Round Eye mentioned the doc & embedded the 9 min. clip back in late December. Thanks S.I.F.T.R.E!

- Sujewa

Opening 9 minutes of Indie Film Blogger Road Trip is up on the web!

Check out the official description of the clip & the clip itself (from YouTube) at DIY Filmmaker blog. !Happy Holidays everyone!

- Sujewa

ShortEnd Magazine writes about Indie Film Blogger Road Trip

Check out Noralil Ryan Fores's thoughts about the doc.

Several new & exciting links: IMDb! Spout interview! Obenson & Geldin see the doc!

Well, maybe a couple of exclamation marks too many in the title of this post, but several new items related to this doc got published on the web the past couple of days:

- Internet Movie Database has a page for Indie Film Blogger Road Trip up now, with links to pages for each of the bloggers - check it out!

- Spout blog interviewed me about my media consumption habits - the doc is mentioned well in the intro - here it is: "His newest film, Indie Film Blogger Road Trip, brings him into the homes and working spaces of 14 film bloggers and is perhaps the first extended meditation on the impact, limitations and peculiarities of the film blogosphere to date."

- Tambay Obenson saw the doc this weekend & mentioned it at a podcast

- Brian "The Film Panel Notetaker" Geldin also saw the doc this weekend & he wrote about it

A big thanks goes out to everyone who took the time to check out the movie & mention it to others, to IMDb, and to Brandon Harris who interviewed me for Spout. It was a busy weekend for IFBRT press & we hope for more of the same in the future.

Updates: another screener to atlanta, The List in the works, watching the doc with bloggers

- sent off another screener DVD of the doc to Atlanta - this time to Noralil Ryan "ShortEnd Magazine" Fores - so we may read about her thoughts about the doc on the web soon

- am working on creating an INDIE FILM PEOPLE, EVENTS & THINGS MENTIONED & OR DISCUSSED IN INDIE FILM BLOGGER ROAD TRIP list; to keep it short, we'll just refer to this item as The List. I think this list will have both reference (people can look up @ which point in the doc a blog, blogger, or an event is discussed in the doc) & historical value (a list of things that we talked about when we talked about indie film blogs & related matters in summer '08). also promotional value - i'll link to blogs & sites, related articles & posts, from the list. hopefully i'll have this list done soon

- also a tentative doc watching hang out session is scheduled for early Dec. in nyc - for one of the bloggers featured in the doc. i am sure quite a few of these movie watching hang out events will happen in the coming months - will have pics or notes when they do. we almost had one such event happen in late October in Brooklyn, but due to my work/day job schedule & other factors that was cancelled. however, like they say in Lithuania, nov. & december is another story.

Created a Facebook group for this doc

Check it out here.

Submitted the doc to SXSW, IMDb

Got an e-mail from Withoutabox today about a partnership thingy they have with IMDb, and after filling out like 20,000 web pages (more like 15 really) - Indie Film Blogger Road Trip was submitted to IMDb - which, if all goes well, should eventually create the slightly amusing situation where bloggers are credited as actors (there wasn't an option to indicate the role of participants more accurately - as interview subjects in a documentary) - or - where bloggers can tell people to look up their acting credit in IMDb. Fun stuff.

Also submitted the movie to SXSW '09 today. If the flick gets in, it would be a great reason to take a trip to Austin. If not, I can still feel good about supporting SXSW - an arts event - a little w/ my submission fee.

More submissions & screener mailings in the coming days.

GreenCine Daily links to Tryon's post about IFBRT

Check out the GreenCine Daily link on this page.

1st reaction to IFBRT is up!

Chuck Tryon saw the doc & wrote about it. From the post:

"At the same time, Sujewa is attentive to the various ways that all of his interviewees are invested in blogging as an activity, even if, as Anthony Kaufman confesses at one point, we don’t always like doing it or like what it has done to film and entertainment journalism. Other bloggers complicate the perception that the indie film community is a completely inclusive, utopian space. As Judy Wajcman observes in her excellent book, TechnoFeminism, “networks create not merely insiders, but also outsiders, the partially enrolled, and those who refuse to be enrolled” (42-43). Melissa Silverstein, for example, took the time to challenge the “all boys club” tendency of many blogging communities, while Armando Valle pointed out that indie festivals often have less room for genre pics such as low-budget horror films. To Sujewa’s great credit, he took great care to ensure that he presented a multi-faceted and diverse portrait of the blogging community, while also acknowledging the ways that we sometimes fail to be fully inclusive. In addition to all that, it was certainly fun to see so many of the bloggers I’ve been reading, in some cases, for several years and to get some history of film blogging from people, such as Kaufman and S.T. VanAirsdale, who have (like myself) been practicing the fine art of film blogging for some time."

Read the rest of the post here.

- Sujewa

Screener DVDs on their way to NC & ATL

Mailed a screener DVD of Indie Film Blogger Road Trip to Chuck Tryon in NC today. Chuck's not only an audience member, he's also one of the subjects of the doc. Should be interesting :)

Also submitted the flick to the Atlanta Film Festival.

More screeners & fest submissions heading out all over America & beyond in the coming days.

- Sujewa

Submitted the doc to Sundance

Yup, it was done (made the late deadline w/ a little bit of help from the fest - never hurts to ask I guess - Thanks a lot Sundance!!!); my first festival submission in over a decade! I know Sundance is a very tough fest to get into, but I think this film stands a chance/very happy with how it turned out & about what it is (a celebration of a creative community).

Lots more fest submissions coming up.

And when I get caught up on some urgent items I'll create & post a trailer & clips & stills from the doc here at this blog.

- Sujewa

Interviewed at FilmInFocus

Check it out here, very cool.

- Sujewa

There is a slim chance that the film will be done by 9/22

9/22 is the deadline for having submissions at Sundance's office for their late deadline for the '09 fest. It might happen; IFBRT might get there before 9/22. If not, this film will be completed & ready to view/ready to submit to other fests before this month is over; a mere 14 days from now. Can you feel the excitement?

- Sujewa

Links to blogs & sites of all the bloggers featured in this doc

Check them out at my other blog DIY Filmmaker Sujewa.

Meeting The Reeler on Wed AM

Back in NYC for a couple of interviews with bloggers; first up on Wed; The Reeler - Stu VanAirsdale; check out his site here.

- Sujewa

Quite possibly the final poster for the doc

Interviewing The Reeler & Anthony Kaufman next week

One more trip to NYC, next week, to interview Stu VanAirsdale aka The Reeler and Anthony Kaufman for the doc. Those should be the final interviews taped, and editing of the doc will continue next weekend, after the interviews. I expect to have the film completed by the end of this month/August.

- Sujewa

Gabe Wardell on blog confessions

Atlanta Film Festival's Executive Director & Indie Film Blogger Road Trip subject Gabe Wardell blogs about revealing too much in blogs, and mentions this project. Check it out.

- Sujewa

The "in production" poster for the doc

End of the road; Silver Spring, MD

After interviewing the final subject (Erica Ginsberg, in Silver Spring, MD) for principal photography on the doc, I got some coffee & an orange cooler at Silver Spring's Tastee Diner, & took a couple of photos.

- Sujewa

Photos Copyright 2008 Sujewa Ekanayake

Erica Ginsberg from Docs In Progress & Docs Interactive blog

Photo Copyright 2008 Sujewa Ekanayake

Film programmer & blogger KJ Mohr photos link

At my DIY Filmmaker blog I posted 2 photos of KJ Mohr, who is a part of this doc, and programs films for the National Museum of Women in the Arts; check them out.

- Sujewa

4 photos from last weekend's travels; Brian Geldin, Melissa Silverstein

Above & below: Brian Geldin, The Film Panel Notetaker blog, Queens, NY






Melissa Silverstein, Women & Hollywood blog, Brooklyn, NY

Photos Copyright 2008 Sujewa Ekanayake

Principal photography completed

Got 90 some % of the footage I need to create this doc, read about it, in greater detail, at DIY Filmmaker.

And now, off to get started on the editing!

- Sujewa

Silver Spring to Kensington to Brooklyn to Fayetteville to Atlanta to Towson to Queens, then back to Brooklyn, back to Silver Spring to DC

All the cities mentioned in the title of this post, and in that order, were places where I filmed (and to be filmed in DC tomorrow) interviews with indie film bloggers for this project. This road trip aspect of the project will have to be a key part of the structure of the doc. After tomorrow's interview in DC, I can start cutting this thing. It's gonna be sweet.

Final title of the movie may be Indie Film Blogger Road Trip.

Indie Film Blogger Road Trip

After surfing the internet superhighways and visiting blogs about independent film for several years, filmmaker and blogger Sujewa Ekanayake decides to get on the real highways in summer 2008 and visit the writers behind some of his favorite indie film blogs. The resulting indie film blogger road trip takes us to several cities in the east coast and a couple of boroughs of New York City, and we meet a dozen bloggers; citizens of the new independent film news republic, centers for a new media community. more soon...

Copyright 2008 Sujewa Ekanayake

- Sujewa

Horror 101's Armando Valle

Photo Copyright 2008 Sujewa Ekanayake

Possibly the only indie film blogger in Fayetteville

Chuck Tryon of The Chutry Experiment

Photos Copyright 2008 Sujewa Ekanayake

Nora in Atlanta

Noralil Ryan Fores of ShortEnd Magazine

Photos Copyright 2008 Sujewa Ekanayake

Couple of indie film bloggers in Brooklyn

Pictured (top to bottom): Tambay Obenson of The Obenson Report (photo 1 & 2), Brandon Harris of Cinema Echo Chamber (photo 3), Tambay & Brandon (L-R, photo 4)

Photos Copyright 2008 Sujewa Ekanayake

Blogs of the 1st 12

A post with links to blogs written by the 1st 12 bloggers interviewed (or will be interviewed by 7/29) for the doc - here.

- Sujewa

How I got started

While I was working on an intro/narration piece for the doc I had to look up when exactly I started blogging about indie film at present intensity (so far 530 some posts in '08 in DIY Filmmaker Sujewa blog) & focus (mostly indie film - real indie kind - & related stuff, most of the time); turns out it was about 2.5 years ago, read all about it here.

- Sujewa

Filming in Baltimore, NYC, Silver Spring, MD & Washington, DC Thu 7/24 - Mon 7/28

I have half a dozen or so bloggers to interview in & around this coming weekend in the DC area & NYC. Notes about those interviews after the weekend.

Still need to post photos from the 1st filming trip to NYC & the recent trip to Atlanta. Will try to get those posted before I take off for NYC on Fri.

- Sujewa

Paula Martinez mentions the doc

At this post at her blog. Paula was interviewed/videotaped for the doc, along with her co-worker Gabe Wardell from the Atlanta Film Festival, about a week ago.

- Sujewa

Film Panel Notetaker mentions ShortEnd podcast re: the doc

Bloggers in the film writing about other blogs in the film and the making of the film; awesome - a new level of cross-linkage/maybe improving the connections in the indie film blogger community a little too: here's The Film Panel Notetaker's post about my podcast interview with ShortEnd Magazine.

- Sujewa

ShortEnd Magazine's podcast interview re: The Indie Film Bloggers

When I was in Atlanta this weekend to interview Noralil Ryan Fores, editor of ShortEnd Magazine, for this doc, she interviewed me about the doc & other things, check out the podcast at ShortEnd.

- Sujewa

Chuck Tryon writes about being interviewed for the doc

Check out Chuck's notes re: participating in The Indie Film Bloggers at The Chutry Experiment.

- Sujewa

Filming in NC, Atlanta, NYC in July

I've got interview shoots coming up in NC & Atlanta soon, & NYC (for the second time) - in late July. Plus Baltimore at some point in July or early August. By mid-August I expect to be finished w/ the blogger interviews & some of the editing. Hopefully in September this doc will be finished. Then off to festival submissions, setting up screenings, & making DVDs, & looking at all other distribution, exhibition options.

- Sujewa

One indie film blogger's thoughts re: being interviewed for the doc

Check them out here at The Obenson Report.

- Sujewa

Notes 1 from NYC shoot day 1 - Sunday June 29, 2008

Check it out here.

- Sujewa

The full title of the doc

I came up with the full title for this documentary a couple of days ago; here it is:

The Indie Film Bloggers: A Portrait of a Community

One of the creative models for this project is Robert Frank's photo book (w/ text by Jack Kerouac) called The Americans (we will have to see how that idea actually applies to a digital video documentary full or interviews; but nevertheless, that's how things got started). So I think it is appropriate that the word portrait is in the full title of the doc (since these days we think of still photographs when we think of the word portrait - probably, I guess some people would still think of paintings).

What is a community? My off-the-top-of-my-head definition is: a group of people with common values, and or a group of people who share a geographic space. There are many small communities created by common interests within the larger indie film blogger world. And perhaps some bloggers feel that there is actually no indie film blogger community in a traditional sense of the world, and that blogging is mostly just a way to promote yourself & your work. This - the existence or lack of existence of community, and the nature of such if certain individuals believe that there is a community of indie film bloggers - will be a topic that will be discussed in the doc.

I came up with the full title for the doc this past Wednesday - after a day of mostly sleeping & then getting some coffee & food at the Wheaton, MD IHOP late at night/early morning. Something about all night restaurants, bright lights & coffee; I've gotten a lot of good ideas at such places/situations. Go IHOP Wheaton! - I guess :)

- Sujewa

Brandon "Cinema Echo Chamber" Harris is in for the doc, & Armando Valle too

Will try to interview Brandon this weekend for the doc.

Here's Brandon's blog Cinema Echo Chamber.

Here's an article/interview re: his blog at FilmInFocus.

::

Also, from a few days back, but just getting around to mentioning it now, Baltimore based filmmaker & blogger Armando Valle is interested in being a part of the doc, looking forward to interviewing him this summer.

- Sujewa

6/24 update on the project

Re: The Obenson Report, etc., here.

- Sujewa

Brian "The Film Panel Notetaker" Geldin will be a part of the doc

Will be filming Brian when he is in the DC area this coming week for SilverDocs; a "blogger on the road" segment. Then also later in the month at his natural habitat in NYC.

6/17 update: Also will be interviewing Chuck Tryon & Amir Motlagh this summer

- Sujewa

Another post about the doc

This one, at DIY Filmmaker Sujewa, is about going to Georgia in July to interview ShortEnd Mag's editor, check it out here.

- Sujewa

1st announcement of the movie

This post at my blog DIY Filmmaker Sujewa is when I first publicly announced the existence of (well, in production) The Indie Film Bloggers doc (although I did talk to a few bloggers about it in the preceding months). If you are so inclined to do so, check out the announcement.

- Sujewa

Contact

Contact director Sujewa Ekanayake at wilddiner@aol.com.